Roy Hay

Sydney FC Women reversed the result of yesterday’s A-League game when they overcame Melbourne Victory by three goals to one in the W-League Grand Final at AAMI Park on Sunday.

In a high quality match of contrasting styles Sydney thoroughly deserved their win, the first time a team has come from fourth place after the home and away matches to win the championship. A crowd of 4181, dominated by Victory fans, was disappointed but kept up their support to the end and Danielle Johnson, the skipper described the occasion as ‘great fun’. Not something you often hear from a losing captain.

Victory women line-up before the game.

Victory had a good early spell but then Sydney responded with quick breaks in succession as the home team’s more measured build-up was often ended by a poor choice of pass or a turnover in a tackle.

Sydney got a goal their rapid approach play deserved after 26 minutes, but it was the result of a defensive error by Victory. Rebekah Stott was caught facing her own goal and gave a short pass back to keeper Brianna Davey, who was forced to play the ball first time with her feet and it cannoned off the onrushing Nicola Bolger and over the goal-line. There was nearly a carbon copy not long afterwards but this time Davey managed to scramble the ball away.

Victory’s equaliser came in the 40^th minute after Stephanie Catley was fouled about 35 metres out.  Petra Larsson sent her free kick in off the post with keeper Shamiran Khamis unable to reach the ball despite a frantic dive across goal. It was the only time the Sydney custodian was beaten and she and young Davey put on brilliant displays, assisted by their respective defences. The first half ended at one-all but Sydney looked the more menacing side.

Three minutes after the break came one of the goals of the year so far when Kyah Simon sprinted down the right wing and sent a cross over the Victory defence towards the far post. Samantha Kerr threw herself at the ball and scored with a decisive diving header. Khamis denied Victory another equaliser with a point-blank save from Enza Barilla in 59 minutes. At the other end Davey was equally brilliant in tipping over a Simon shot in 66 minutes.

The game opened up as a players tired and showed clear signs of cramp. Sydney’s Larissa Crummer had just come on as substitute, replacing Natalie Tobin when she sprinted on to a loose ball deep in the Victory half. Her speed carried her past Maika Ruyter-Hooley who brought her down, leaving referee Kate Jacewicz no option but to issue a red card as well as the penalty kick. Simon blasted the ball home then tried to quieten the home support with her celebratory gesture. Needless to say it did not work, but it was a nice piece of theatre.

Kyah Simon and coach Alen Stajcic and the trophy

Kyah Simon won the player of the match award and joked afterwards that she was disappointed that she hadn’t achieved the goal she set herself of scoring a hat-trick. She was more pleased with the team performance and the result. For Victory this proved one step too far, but showed that the team is improving year by year, despite the personnel changes which have disrupted the last part of the season. The team will have to add variety in attack and speed up its transitional play if it is to go to the next level and win the title next season. But all those who took part today can be proud of their efforts, skill and commitment. Among those enjoying the action was Matilda Sally Shiphard, who was itching to get out there to take part in the spectacle.

Victory banners fly

Match details (unofficial)

Sunday 27 January 2013

W-League Grand Final

Melbourne Victory 1 (Petra Larsson 40’) Sydney FC 3 (Nicola Bolger 26’, Sam Kerr 48’, Kyah Simon 86’)

Venue: AAMI Park, Melbourne

Local kick-off: 3.30 pm

Referee: Kate Jacewicz

Assistant referees: Sarah Ho and Allyson Flynn

Fourth official: Casey Reibelt

Attendance: 4,181

Melbourne Victory:

1. Brianna DAVEY, 2. Danielle JOHNSON, 3. Maika RUYTER-HOOLEY, 4. Rebekah STOTT, 5. Laura SPIRANOVIC, 6. Petra LARSSON, 7. Stephanie CATLEY, 10. Jessica McDONALD (23. Jessica HUMBLE 73’), 14. Enza BARILLA, 15. Amy JACKSON, 17. Gulcan KOCA.

Unused substitutes: 9. Tiffany ELIADIS, 11.Caitlin FRIEND, 18. Cindy LAY, 20. Cassandra DIMOVSKI.

Yellow cards: Nil

Red cards: Maika Ruyter-Hooley 85’

Sydney FC:

20. Shamiran KHAMIS, 2. Teresa POLIAS, 3. Elizabeth RALSTON, 4. Sam KERR, 7. Nicola BOLGER (13. Larissa CRUMMER 80’), 9. Caitlin FOORD, 10. Renee ROLLASON, 11. Annalie LONGO (18. Brittany WHITFIELD 90+2’), 12. Chloe LOGARZO (6. Natalie TOBIN 88’), 14. Alanna KENNEDY, 17. Kyah SIMON.

Unused substitutes: 1. Sian MCLAREN, 8. Amy HARRISON.

Yellow cards: Nil

Red cards: Nil

Roy Hay

(This article appeared as a Blast from the Past in Goal Weekly, 7 December 2012, p. 19.)

Box Hill is one of Victoria’s oldest clubs. Or is it? The origins of many clubs are quite obscure and there is reason to doubt a number of the generally accepted notions about Box Hill. Until I started researching for this column I accepted the Victorian Soccer Federation’s statement that Box Hill was founded in 1922, but I can find no sign of it in the newspapers of that year. The one copy of Soccer News for 1924 in the State Library has no mention of Box Hill. It is possible that friendly and scratch games were being played in 1922 to 1924. Today’s Box Hill United’s website says the club began in 1925 and won Division Four of the Victorian league that year. (Incidentally the Brighton club website also claims that it won Division Four in 1925.) In fact there were two clubs in Box Hill in 1925, Box Hill and Box Hill United. It was the former which won the league and was promoted to Division Three, while United remained in Division Four in 1926. Both teams took part in the Dockerty Cup. So we can safely say that there was league and cup football being played in Box Hill by two teams in 1925, but that is about all.

In June 1926 there was a nasty accident when the players of Werribee Soccer Football Club were on their way to meet Box Hill. The truck in which they were travelling was struck by a car at the junction of Flinders and Queen Street and overturned and the players were thrown into the road. We know about this because the truck’s owner sought £40 from the driver of the car for the damage done to his truck and won the court case in September. There is no mention of any recompense for the players! Box Hill went on to win Division Three.

The following year there was a split in the organisation of the game in both Victoria and New South Wales. Box Hill joined the Metropolitan Districts, while Box Hill United was part of Section A of the Melbourne and District group. In 1928 Box Hill United became Camberwell City, leaving the Box Hill club as the sole representative of the area. It was as confusing to people at the time as it is to understand today. The split had no sooner been provisionally mended when the Great Depression struck Australia and the game received a serious set-back.

When things began to improve slightly in 1931 Box Hill won Division Two of the Victorian League and promotion to the top division, which was not automatic in those days. But this proved a step too far and in 1932 the club finished last in an eight-team league. Box Hill was not relegated however and came sixth in a ten-team league in 1933. The club rose to fourth the next year, but was back in last place in 1935. This time it was relegated. John Punshon has been unable to find a final table for Division Two in 1936 but with four games left Box Hill was safely in mid table. Nobels was the runaway Division Two champion in 1937 and Box Hill led the chasing group, while in 1938 it had dropped back to mid-league mediocrity.

The outbreak of war in 1939 may well have had an impact on the Box Hill club which did not win a game in Division Two finishing last. Nineteen-forty was little better with one win, and that was a walk-over, in an incomplete season. There was little continuity among the names on the team sheets that year. Eleven starters and four reserves were named for the away game at South Yarra in July, but the result was nine-nil against. There were only six teams in Division Two in 1941 and Box Hill was in the middle. The club probably gave up trying to compete in the attenuated competition for the rest of the war years, but in 1945 it appeared again in in a league of 13 teams which played each other once, then split into two groups of six who played each other once more.

From this rather ordinary performance, Box Hill was about to embark on one of its most successful periods, winning the Division One title for the first and only time in 1948. Led by Don Hutchinson the club won ten out of fourteen games and banged in 45 goals. Hutchinson got 17 of them including three hat-tricks. The Box Hill line-up in 1948 included Vic Warry, Brown, Jack Holborn, Bill Tester, Don Hutchinson, Keith Gravell, Lester Hutchinson, F Mountford, Davis, Bayley, W Chappell, Brown and A McKellar.

Until the influx of migrants from Europe the clubs which drew on British and Australian players held sway and Box Hill was in the top five positions in each season until 1952. Thereafter the competition became fiercer and the Hillmen would probably have been relegated in 1958, if the Victorian Amateur Soccer Football Association had not instituted a State League with twelve clubs that year. It only staved off the execution until 1961 when Box Hill dropped into Division One North where it remained until winning what was then Metropolitan Division One in 1968. The reserves won the Armstrong cup in 1960, 1963, 1984 and 1989.

For the next few years Box Hill yo-yoed between the State League and the First Division. It was too good for the lower division and not good enough to stay in the top tier. The later part of the 1970s saw Box Hill in Metropolitan Division One until 1982 when it climbed back into the State League before successive relegations saw it drop to State League Two at the end of 1991, when the Victorian Premier League began. That shock led to the club amalgamating with Clayton as Box Hill Inter and a rise to the VPL for the 1995 season. Two years later there was another amalgamation this time involving Bulleen Lions and Brunswick United Juventus, which resulted in two VPL championships in 1998 and 2004 after the combined side finished third in the home and away matches. However, Box Hill gradually disengaged itself from the merger becoming effectively a junior club with Richard Mensink and John Kennedy at the helm in 1999. The demerger was expensive but eventually finalised in 2007.

Meanwhile Box Hill fielded a women’s team which took the Victorian Women’s Premier League by storm winning the title six times by 2010. Back to back titles against Heidleberg United in 2009 and 2010 were highlights.

Box Hill women’s team in 2010 before the final against Heidelberg United. Photo: Roy Hay.

Many top class players have been involved with Box Hill over the years, as juniors coming through or as senior players and mentors. They include Scott Patterson (and his brother Kyle, who is now head of media at Football Federation Australia), Micky Valentine, Damian Mori, Peter Bedford and Curtis Good.

Micky Vaelntine playing for Heidelberg.

In 2011 Box Hill was involved in yet another merger, this time with Southern Suburbs. The new entity is known as Box Hill United with the nickname Pythagoras reflecting the Greek influence of what used to be Oakleigh Suburbs in the 1990s.

Box Hill 1985

Robert Harrison, Dave Brooks, Zdravko Basic, Andy McMillan, Alan Roodhouse, Darren White, David Azzopardi, Chris Taylor, Andy Hughes, Pedro Ramos, Peter Verechia, Andy Humble. Coach: Keith Webster.

Box Hill 1989

John McKinlay, Tom McMorrow, John Dimitrelos, Greg McLeod, Paddy Cooper, Tom Kennedy, A Ham, Mike Hanley, Gary Egan, Stuart McArthur, Gerry McAleer, Alex Christie, Julian Thomas. Coach: John Brown.

Roy Hay

Melbourne Victory continued its unblemished sequence of wins over Newcastle Jets in the W-League at Simonds Stadium in Geelong on Saturday afternoon, running out victor by a goal to nil. That also meant that Victory women have not lost an A-League game in Geelong.

The first twenty minutes were fairly even with both sides creating and missing opportunities, but from then until the interval Victory was well on top, with Stephanie Catley threateneing every time she got the ball out wide on the left. Mike Mulvey has stressed that his charges keep the width in their attacking game and young Gulcan Koca did her best to provide balance on the right. The Jets proved resolute in defence with keeper Eliza Campbell outstanding. Several times she came off her line to break up attacks and she saved every shot which was on target until injury time at the interval. There had been no breaks in play until the 45^th minute, but then Sammar Schmitzer injured herself in a tackle in which she conceded a free kick. Referee Amy Patterson allowed it to be taken and Catley sent over a curving cross which eluded the defence and Rebekah Stott got a good strike to send the ball into the corner. New Zealand international Stott had been immense in the Victory defence and this was her first A-League goal.

Victory skipper Maika Ruyter-Hooley and goalscorer Rebekah Stott

Tiffany Boshers replaced the unlucky Schmitzer and the Jets had their best spell of the game, but found young Brianna Davey in equally fine form in the Victory goal. She got good distance on her deflections of a number of high balls across the goal area and saved several direct shots on goal overhead and by spreading herself when attackers came through on the ground. The game turned in Victory’s favour when Stacey Day, who had been having a typically robust game in defence to that point, was booked twice in the 80^th and 81^st minutes. The first was for a tackle and then a protest to the referee, the second for a shirt pull on Victory substitute Laura Spiranovic. In combination it was harsh, though well within the laws of the game. Stephanie Catley had three more free kicks in the second half but drove them all at the keeper and Jessica McDonald had a couple of good opportunities to score. The American striker did a lot of good defensive work, but she does not seem to have the striker’s instinct for goal which leads to challenges on everything that comes her way. The game ended as she headed a cross by Spiranovic over the bar. Socceroo Matthew’s sister’s stature is very unlike that of her brother and when she gets up to full match fitness she will be a real handful for any defence, particularly if used as an impact player later in the game. The crowd gave her a great reception when she came on in the 75^th minute. For the Jets, apart from keeper Campbell, American import Tori Huster was superb, covering the ground to great effect and setting up numerous attacking moves and finishing some of them. She had no luck in front of goal.

Stephanie Catley (No. 7) helps out the Victory defence.

Captions for pics:

Tori Huster sizes up her options in a crowded midfield. Photo: Roy Hay.

Victory skipper Maika Ruyter-Hooley  and goalscorer Rebekha Stott (No. 4). Photo: Roy Hay.

Stephanie Catley (No. 7) helps out the Victory defence. Photo: Roy Hay.

Match details (unofficial and incomplete)

Saturday, 3 November 2012

Melbourne Victory Women 1 (Rebekah Stott, 45+1’) Newcastle Jets Women 0

Venue: Simonds Stadium, Geelong

Kick-off: 2 pm

Referee: Amy Patterson

Assistant referees:

Fourth official:

Attendance: 400 (estimated)

Melbourne Victory: 1. Brianna Davey, 2. Danielle Johnson, 3. Maika Ruyter-Hooley (c), 4. Rebekah Stott, 7. Stephanie Catley, 9. Tiffany Eliadis (5. Laura Spiranovic 74) 10. Jessica McDonald, 14. Enza Barilla, 15. Amy Jackson, 17. Gulcan Koca, 18. Cindy Lay (12. Jackie Vogt 82)

Newcastle Jets: 1. Eliza Campbell, 2. Hannah Brewer, 3. Hayley Crawford (c), 4. Gemma Pearce, 5. Tori Huster, 6. Angela Salem, 7. Gema Simon, 14. Sammara Schmitzer (12. Tiffany Boshers 45) 15. Alisha Foote (11. Kate Hensman 70) 16. Stacey Day, 18. Michaela Hatzirodos (9. Tara Andrews 61)